Interesting

Surprisingly, France 2 has been very supportive of the American military's effort in spreading relief from the tsunami, whilst criticizing their own government.

Start here with Douglas' fabulous commentary-cum-transcription of Monday night's broadcast. Then read what Fausta has to say about it.

Fausta follows up today with a report on Tuesday's broadcast:

{...}One could argue whether there's a political agenda -- to shame the Chirac government's deadly inefficiency. For instance, David Pujadas (this week's anchor), who has been doing a great job, clearly asked pointed questions whose answers directly contradict the official party line: "the field hospital is ready." Bernard Coq, the reporter in Aceh, started by saying, "while clearly one won't contradict Mrs Defense Minister,"{then went on to report} the field hospital is obviously not ready since at least half the supplies and nearly half the staff have no means of getting to the disaster area. The helicopter the French government sent is yet to be assembled.

What is clear, however, is that France2 news has presented a factual, and objective, record of what the USA has done well. France2 has also done an excellent job reporting the daily travails of the survivors, and the tsunami itself. If you have the time, it's worth watching the entire broadcast even if you don't understand the language.{...}

Highly interesting. And very welcome, too.

Posted by Kathy at January 12, 2005 01:56 PM